Fredric Effects Super Unpleasant Companion

The Fredric Effects Super Unpleasant Companion is a fuzz pedal that combines two vintage Japanese circuits in a single enclosure: a faithful reproduction of the Shin-Ei FY-2 Companion Fuzz and the Shin-Ei FY-6 Superfuzz¹. A big toggle switch on the pedal chooses which circuit you are playing through, so one box covers two quite different fuzz voices from the Shin-Ei line.

Fredric Effects describes the two sides in plain terms. In the announcement of the pedal, the maker wrote: "The FY-2 is a waspy, buzzy fuzz unlike any other. The FY-6 has two distinct fuzz tones- a crunchy garagey sound and a massive wall-of-fuzz sound. It has some nice octave/ring mod tones in there too."²

Two Shin-Ei circuits in one box

The FY-2 and FY-6 are related but distinct pedals. The FY-2 Companion Fuzz is a buzzy, mid-focused fuzz, while the FY-6 Superfuzz adds an octave effect and a make-up gain stage, and is best known for being re-branded as the Univox Super Fuzz⁴. The FY-2 does not have the octave effect of the Super Fuzz⁴. Putting both in one enclosure gives a player the wasp-sting FY-2 voice and the octave-up Superfuzz voice without buying two pedals.

The enclosure itself is a nod to the originals. Fredric Effects had its boxes fabricated to the same dimensions as the last Shin-Ei (actually Kimbara branded) FY-2 to pass through the builder's doors, but improved on the vintage boxes with 1.2mm steel, welded joins, threaded inserts for the side screws and a powder coated textured finish¹.

The controls in FY-2 and FY-6 modes

The big toggle switch selects the circuit, and each mode has its own control set¹:

The tone switch is where the pedal earns its range. On the Nouveau version, reviewed by Guitar.com in 2022, the mids-cutting effect of the tone switch taken from the original FY-6 could also be applied to the FY-2 circuit, for a total of four distinct voices⁵. Guitar.com listed the controls on that version as Expander (fuzz), balance (level), an FY-2/FY-6 mode switch and a tone 1/2 switch⁵.

In use, the reviewer found the four voices genuinely different. In FY-2 mode with both switches up, the pedal was "grinding out angular shards of fuzz with a fanatical focus on the midrange"⁵. Flipping the tone switch down "scoops a huge chunk out of that midrange; the treble response remains somewhat stifled"⁵. In FY-6 mode with the tone switch in position 1, he found "a much more open and edgy sound than the FY-2, absolutely nailing the ratty snarl of the opening riff to Mudhoney's Touch Me I'm Sick"⁵, and on the neck pickup with tone rolled down it "brings out the high overtones for an almost Octavia-like effect"⁵.

Power and connections

The Super Unpleasant Companion runs on 9V DC, center negative, and draws 10mA³. It uses a Boss-type 9V DC jack, center-negative, the same as Boss, MXR, new Electro-Harmonix and most pedal brands³.

The Nouveau version could also run from a nine-volt battery or a standard power supply, with true bypass⁵.

History and versions: Classic, Nouveau and Petite

The Super Unpleasant Companion was announced in December 2012, alongside the I Got Me a Pocket Weasel fuzz, and both were available direct from the builder and selected shops². The line has since gone through three main versions:

The Nouveau page states plainly: "This pedal is discontinued!" and points players to the Petite⁶. Fredric Effects says the Petite supersedes "the very successful Nouveau Super Unpleasant Companion we built for almost a decade!"⁷. The Petite keeps a faithful reproduction of both the FY-2 Companion Fuzz and FY-6 Superfuzz circuits, but chooses between them with a push-button switch instead of a toggle, and adds a tone foot switch and an octave button⁷. Its FY-2 mode has Fuzztone and Volume controls, and its FY-6 mode has Gain/Sustain and Volume⁷.

There was also a special edition: Fredric Effects built white Super Unpleasant Companions as a special edition for Regent Sounds in London⁸.

How it differs from the rest of the Companion family

Fredric Effects makes a wider family of FY-2-based pedals. The Unpleasant Companion MKII is an improved version of the classic Shin-Ei FY-2 Companion Fuzz on its own, which the maker calls "a harsh transistor fuzz unlike any other!", with a scoop control on the MKII⁹. The Deeply Unpleasant Companion is the bass-oriented variant: an improved FY-2 with a clean blend for bass guitar and a volume boost circuit¹⁰. Premier Guitar's reviewer found it "relatively gentler on the lighter end of the dials, but most of what lives inside is not subtle", delivering "deep, raspy, meat-grinder fuzz" with more bottom dialed in¹¹.

The Super Unpleasant Companion differs from all of these by including the FY-6 Superfuzz circuit alongside the FY-2, giving the octave and ring-modulation tones the FY-2 alone does not have¹⁴. If you want both vintage Shin-Ei voices on one pedalboard slot, this is the one in the range that does it.

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